| Time | Text |
|---|---|
|
If There Is No God
00:01:21
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|
| Your dog and a stranger are drowning. | |
| You can only save one. | |
| Who do you choose? | |
| Dennis Prager says your answer reveals everything about how you define right and wrong. | |
| In his new book, If There Is No God, Prager exposes the danger of emotion-based morality and why, without objective truth, society descends into chaos. | |
| This isn't a religious book, it's a rational case for moral clarity in a confused age. | |
| If There Is No God from Dennis Prager. | |
| Order now at PragerStore.com. | |
| Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. | |
| Here are thousands of hours of Dennis' lectures, courses, and classic radio programs. | |
| And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com. | |
| Every week at this time, no matter what. | |
|
Happy Hour
00:02:14
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|
| Hey, yes, it yes, it is. | |
| Oh, yes, oh, yes, oh, yes, it is. | |
| It's the happiness hour. | |
| We talk about happiness every week at this time because it is a moral obligation to be as happy as possible. | |
| It's the happy, happy, happy, happy hour. | |
| It really is. | |
| Why would you think I would choose one topic? | |
| It's the only one of all the things I talk about that I'm obligated to talk about. | |
| I have an ultimate issues hour every week where I talk about some great issue of life, but there are different ones each week. | |
| But this is happiness every week. | |
| Happy people make the world better. | |
| The unhappy tend to make the world worse. | |
| I'm sorry, unhappy ones. | |
| I'm sorry. | |
| The unhappy walk around thinking that the happy don't have any problems. | |
| It's a common belief among the unhappy that only they have the issues. | |
| Now, there are, of course, there are exceptions to every rule, including this one, but that's why we owe it to our children, our spouses, our parents, our friends. | |
| God, I was on the plane yesterday. | |
| The guy next to me was one of these misanthropes. | |
| I mean, he didn't do anything cruel, but I remember just saying, hey, good morning. | |
| And that was the response. | |
| And he's spoke and wasn't he was not foreign-born. | |
| And I'm telling you, your trip, especially cross-country, your trip is different if you sit next to an unhappy, an obviously unhappy person. | |
| It is. | |
| I'm not asking for some manic to sit next to me and giggle the entire time. | |
| That's horrific. | |
| But the opposite of unhappy is not manic, is balanced and have an upbeat disposition in life. | |
| A friend of mine told me, you'll like this, Alan. | |
| It was the WAS. | |
| And he told me that he was telling his son, how old? | |
| How old is the younger one? | |
|
Choosing Between Houses
00:15:38
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|
| About 11? | |
| So I had, he says, younger son told him that he was unhappy I was moving from the neighborhood. | |
| And he said, I really, I like Dennis because he is fun to be with. | |
| And he doesn't listen to the show. | |
| 11-year-old, 11-year-old likes to be with an upbeat adult. | |
| And I don't clown with him. | |
| I'm not one of those adults who entertains children. | |
| He just likes that temperament. | |
| We all like it. | |
| It's just the way it is. | |
| But in the 60s, which ushered in the age of stupidity, the idea came that if you don't feel it, then you shouldn't act it, right? | |
| Typically foolish idea of that period. | |
| You don't feel happy, folks. | |
| You should act happy anyway for the sake of everything. | |
| It's like saying, I don't feel clean. | |
| Well, you still take a shower, whether you feel clean or not. | |
| And anyway, if you act happy, you'll be happier anyway. | |
| Now to today's topic. | |
| A lot of people fear making decisions. | |
| Talk to real estate agents. | |
| Real estate agents and their work fascinate me. | |
| Fascinates me. | |
| I love homes. | |
| I find I love walking into people's homes. | |
| I love the very real estate, it is very real. | |
| Real estate work is real. | |
| People are real. | |
| Because when it comes to your home and to money, people are not acting. | |
| And I have bought more homes than I want to think about. | |
| Not at the same time. | |
| I wish I could. | |
| Then it would be great. | |
| But life doesn't always come the way you think it will come. | |
| And I bought more homes than I expected successively. | |
| I'm not complaining. | |
| I'm just stating a fact. | |
| So I am somewhat of an expert on the psychology and a lot of other aspects of real estate. | |
| I mean, certainly not. | |
| I don't know what a real estate broker knows. | |
| But in other words, I know something about the process of selling and the process of buying. | |
| And there are people who, I am the opposite of this person. | |
| There are people who can't make up their mind on a house. | |
| Just can't. | |
| I was talking to a broker recently about a guy who was debating between two houses. | |
| And I told this guy, I said, How long has this guy been debating? | |
| He said, six months. | |
| I said, forget it. | |
| You are wasting your time with this man. | |
| This man will not decide for so long it will be, it'll drive you nuts. | |
| And though he was a broker with a lot of experience, he didn't believe me. | |
| He just disagreed with me. | |
| And sure enough, it turns out that this guy continues to be undecided. | |
| This notion of indecision because of a big decision, and it is a big decision buying a house. | |
| Nobody knows better than I. | |
| It's a big decision. | |
| It is a big in every way. | |
| Where you live is important. | |
| The type of home you have is important. | |
| And of course, monetarily, it's extremely important. | |
| Oh, I don't understate the importance of buying a house, but I do wish to make the point, and this is the point of this happiness hour. | |
| A lot of people are plagued by fear of making a decision. | |
| There are people who labor more over what dessert to get than I have over on occasion what home to get. | |
| I like the home. | |
| I like the place. | |
| I like the price. | |
| Sign me up. | |
| I don't have a life to spend looking as much as I enjoy looking at different homes. | |
| If I found a good one, then I'm happy. | |
| What is the worst thing that could happen? | |
| This I did an hour on, Alan, a long time ago. | |
| Everyone should always ask themselves, what's the worst that could happen? | |
| So the worst that could happen with regard to buying a house that you later regret is you later regret you bought that house. | |
| It doesn't work out. | |
| Fine. | |
| You can't, but it can't be that bad. | |
| It can't be that bad because you bought it. | |
| It must have enticed you for a whole host of reasons. | |
| And people spend their lives, and I feel bad for the spouse. | |
| Now, if your spouse is as tentative as you are, then you're blessed. | |
| That's fine, and it doesn't annoy your spouse. | |
| But I would think, and I hate to put this burden on some of you, but I would think that women would like to be married to a man who makes a decision. | |
| Isn't that part of what renders a man masculine? | |
| I am making a decision. | |
| Doesn't mean you make it against your wife's will, but if she's looking to you for a leadership in that arena, then damn it, lead. | |
| I like that house. | |
| We're taking it. | |
| Well, I don't know, but this one has this. | |
| This one has an extra bathroom, but this one has another studio. | |
| And this one has, for California, at least, this one has a little pool. | |
| This one has a jacuzzi. | |
| This one doesn't have either, but it has more tulips. | |
| This one has a little more flatland in the back. | |
| This one has a hilly background. | |
| Of course, that's the way. | |
| Unless you have unlimited funds, you are going to pay. | |
| You are going to figure out what you give up and what you have. | |
| That's the way of, that's all of life. | |
| No matter what you get, it comes with some price. | |
| Anything you get. | |
| And if you get one with everything you want, then the upkeep will be a fortune. | |
| And you probably don't have the money for everything you want. | |
| And it doesn't only apply to real estate. | |
| I'm using the real estate example. | |
| It doesn't only apply to real estate. | |
| It applies to getting married. | |
| Well, you know, she has this and not this, but she has that one and this, and he has this, but not that and that and but not this. | |
| And, you know, what is it that most, what is it that the indecisive want? | |
| Absolute certitude. | |
| Where in life is absolute certitude available? | |
| Where? | |
| 1-8 Prager776. | |
| Are you plagued? | |
| And I know wonderful people. | |
| This is not a character flaw. | |
| This is an emotional problem, psychological one. | |
| Are you someone plagued by the inability to make a decision? | |
| If you are, and I say this very openly, I feel bad for you. | |
| I have seen people suffer. | |
| This guy whom I never met debating between house A and house B. | |
| I mean, I can't believe he's happy. | |
| I don't know, well, this, but I don't know that, and I don't know, and I don't know, and I don't know. | |
| No certitude is available. | |
| You sit down, you make a decision, and you move on with life. | |
| That is the best way in which to do these things. | |
| Make a decision. | |
| I'm sure that people do this with cars. | |
| Car dealers may you may have, if you're a real estate agent and you have examples of this, I'd love to hear from you. | |
| If you're married to someone plagued with the inability to make a decision, I'd like to hear from you. | |
| And I think I can help you, at least I can help your mind, not your psyche, adjust to making decisions. | |
| Because I want to know what you fear, because it's all based on fear. | |
| What do you fear when it comes to making a decision? | |
| 1-8 Prager776, the happiness hour on the Dennis Prager Show. | |
| This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this. | |
| Here's something most people don't know. | |
| When Warren Buffett was just 13 years old, he didn't put his money into a savings account. | |
| While other kids were earning next to nothing at local banks, Buffett put $114 into a little-known investment. | |
| Today, that $114 would be worth over $15 million. | |
| And it wasn't a risky trade. | |
| It wasn't even insider knowledge. | |
| It was an account that's been around since 1888. | |
| And over the last 25 years, it's averaged 29% a year. | |
| That's what happens when your money is allowed to compound. | |
| Compare that to today's savings accounts, paying less than half a percent, while inflation quietly eats away at your buying power. | |
| Buffett understood early. | |
| Banks are great businesses, just not for savers. | |
| If you'd like to see what some investors call the 29% account, go now to secretaccount29.com. | |
| That's secret account, the numbers29.com. | |
| SecretAccount29.com. | |
| Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. | |
| Happy music on the happiness hour. | |
| Hi, everyone. | |
| Dennis Prager here. | |
| I talk about happiness every week at this hour. | |
| I think the only exception I ever made was the week of 9-11. | |
| And I'm not sure I did then, but I think I did. | |
| Welcome back. | |
| I'm talking to you about a problem that afflicts, I wonder what percentage, I'd love to know what percentage of people, and I'd like to help you with this, because you can't be happy if you have this problem. | |
| And that is the inability to make decisions. | |
| I was using the real estate issue. | |
| You could apply it to anything. | |
| You know, people, I don't know, well, this is my favorite about the real estate issue. | |
| When people say, well, I don't know, is this a good time to buy? | |
| What does that mean? | |
| You know, you know, when is a good time to buy? | |
| You have to live life. | |
| You can't base it on, well, when will they still go down further? | |
| You don't know that. | |
| I have lived through more real estate cycles than I can account. | |
| I don't know. | |
| Is this the time? | |
| It'll be better next year. | |
| I'll wait till rates change. | |
| Well, rates may go up. | |
| In the meantime, you have to live. | |
| You may have a heart attack in the meantime. | |
| So, anyway, that's just the reality. | |
| It could be on choosing a spouse. | |
| It could be on a job. | |
| It could be anything. | |
| Decisions have to be made. | |
| All right, let's go to, I want to find out what stops you. | |
| What goes on in your mind in the fear of making a decision? | |
| All righty, we begin in Dallas with Rob. | |
| Hello, Rob. | |
| Dennis Prager, thanks for calling. | |
| Hey, Dennis, pleasure to talk to you. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Hey, there. | |
| I'm such an indecisive person on so many levels, but even to the point that I can't even decide what to say to you right now. | |
| But the point being that's precious. | |
| Even the little things in daily life, like I find myself getting caught up, you know, should I put my microwave, put my coffee in the microwave to get it heated up before I turn on my computer? | |
| Because which one's going to take longer for me to do? | |
| And one could be working while the other one's not. | |
| I mean, just even the littlest things. | |
| Oh, wow. | |
| Yeah, so sometimes I find myself paralyzed by it. | |
| Yes, exactly. | |
| It's paralyzing. | |
| I assume you're not married. | |
| Oh, I am married. | |
| How does that mean? | |
| I am married. | |
| And it doesn't, I mean, it doesn't keep me from living a good life or anything like that or a productive. | |
| Does it affect your wife? | |
| Maybe in some respect, but I mean, of course, she's a very understanding person, but I don't know if, you know, we've talked about it before, and I don't know if it's some kind of form of ADD or what it is. | |
| Well, you know, these initials have really caused us to think in psychopathological terms when the issue may well be in your mind. | |
| It may not just be a some ADD is where there is a block, physiological block. | |
| There may not be. | |
| Rob, it may be. | |
| I want you to analyze, if not for me, for yourself. | |
| I want you to analyze. | |
| There are two things I want you to do. | |
| Analyze what you fear, because it has to be driven by fear. | |
| Something will happen if I make the wrong decision. | |
| That has to be a driving element. | |
| Is that fair to say? | |
| I think that's probably correct. | |
| Okay, number two, I want you to start timing yourself on all these little decisions of your daily life and say, no matter what, I'm coming to a decision within 30 seconds. | |
| Right. | |
| Just be behavioral. | |
| And then I want you to then realize that even if you made the wrong decision, the price paid is not terribly significant. | |
| Or there may not even be a wrong decision. | |
| Correct. | |
| And in most cases in my daily life, there probably isn't a wrong decision, but I'm getting hung up on the... | |
| That's right. | |
| So I need you. | |
| I am a behaviorist. | |
| I believe that forget your feelings, act with your mind. | |
| Mind says, make a decision. | |
| I am going to do it. | |
| I am going to do mind over matter. | |
| And I want you to do it for the next week and send me an email. | |
| I'm very serious. | |
| I'd be very interested in knowing what would happen with Rob. | |
| And obviously, for those of you who were plagued, and obviously a lot of you were plagued, or I wouldn't have raised this as an issue. | |
| You can make decisions. | |
| Force yourself to make decisions within 30 seconds and find out what happens. | |
| Is life worse? | |
| Is life better? | |
| Is life the same? | |
| Okay, let's go to Lisa in Phoenix. | |
| Thank you, Rob. | |
| Lisa Phoenix, Dennis Prager. | |
| Hi. | |
| Hi, Dennis. | |
| I've been waiting so long for you to ask a question like this because I really have a difficult time making decisions in general. | |
| But as of late, we have this big issue and it's just pressing on me where I can't sleep at night and it's keeping me up at night. | |
| And my husband is very black and white. | |
| He thinks I'm ridiculous and he thinks I worry too much. | |
| But it's basically my seven-year-old son. | |
| He's in a parochial school. | |
| He's in first grade going into second grade. | |
| And academically, the school's okay. | |
| He's getting some of the values that we like. | |
| However, he is a gifted child who's a little quirky and doesn't seem to quite fit in socially. | |
| And they happen to have this amazing gifted program in the public schools, which is kind of like him. | |
| It's geared towards kids like him that are a little quirky, but need more academic stimulation and a Socratic setting and that sort of thing. | |
| And I've been going back and forth because school here starts in less than a month. | |
| And he's enrolled in both places, and I don't know where to put him. | |
| Okay, first, let me tell you that as so often in life, both choices are good. | |
| You are not choosing between death and life here. | |
| You are choosing between one wonderful form of schooling and another wonderful form of schooling. | |
|
Both Choices Are Good
00:14:01
|
|
| So you shouldn't lose any sleep. | |
| But I feel like if I make the wrong decision, it's a good thing. | |
| Then you'll change. | |
| If you make the wrong decision, then you'll go back to the other school. | |
| Kids switch schools all the time. | |
| It doesn't matter. | |
| So that's why I have raised this. | |
| Always ask, what's the worst that could happen? | |
| It's not as if, you know, it's either school here or there's this terrific school for seven-year-olds in Tokyo, and I won't see my seven-year-old for a year. | |
| This is between the good parochial school and a special public school for gifted kids. | |
| There, the answer lies in your value system. | |
| And for me, great academics is of no interest. | |
| Zero. | |
| So, therefore, for me, it would be a non-issue. | |
| I would send them to the parochial school. | |
| But I'm not even urging you to. | |
| I'm saying because I'm clear in my values, I know what decision I would make, especially since I don't want my child to walk around thinking he's gifted. | |
| Dennis, do you remember you had that woman? | |
| What's her last name was Dweck, and she had that book, The Mindset. | |
| It talked about how you shouldn't praise your children all the time. | |
| And I got the book and I read it. | |
| Right. | |
| And I figured that would help me make my decision. | |
| And it's not that we want him to think he's gifted. | |
| That's certainly not it. | |
| And of course, we want him to get the values because that's what we believe in. | |
| And I think that's paramount. | |
| But if he's not happy socially and he's being picked on and made fun of. | |
| That's right. | |
| You're right. | |
| If that's the inevitable, on the other hand, isolating him from the normal, so to speak, may not be a great decision either. | |
| Maybe he needs to learn to live with the normal. | |
| Back in a moment. | |
| Hi, everybody. | |
| Welcome back. | |
| This is the Dennis Prager Show, The Happiness Hour. | |
| An hour every week at this time, second hour on Friday, devoted to the subject of happiness. | |
| And today it is about the inability to make decisions. | |
| People fear making a decision. | |
| Who to marry, what house to buy on big ones? | |
| You just heard what school will I send my kid to. | |
| This poor, I mean it, this poor woman can't sleep at night. | |
| And the irony is she has two good choices. | |
| It's not like, well, this one may give my child malaria, and this one may give my child diphtheria. | |
| It's not the presidential decision of the troops at Iraq. | |
| And we get paralyzed. | |
| I was thinking of this because of being involved in a real estate recently, and a man that I never met in my life. | |
| I don't know who he is, but who was debating between two houses for six months and will debate another six months. | |
| And they will both be gone. | |
| That is what is going to happen. | |
| See, again, this is the battle between the mind and the brain. | |
| Your mind has to direct you. | |
| If your mind governed, you can be happy. | |
| The mind, the mind, the mind, thinking rationally and not allowing fears to overwhelm you and so on. | |
| What is the worst thing that could happen if you make a bad choice? | |
| Now, there are times where the consequences are extraordinary, I agree, but not in a house purchase. | |
| It's pretty rare that you can't go back on a decision, or going back on it is really, really traumatic. | |
| Okay, let's go to all the sorts of examples that people can give. | |
| And I hope that, was it Rob in Dallas? | |
| I hope he does contact me. | |
| I just told him, I want you to make decisions within 30 seconds for the next week. | |
| Whatever it is, what you're going to order in a restaurant, anything you want. | |
| I've seen people pour over restaurant menus as if they were choosing which form of execution they should have. | |
| Will it be by a chair, the electric chair? | |
| Will I be shot? | |
| Cracks me up. | |
| Phoenix, Arizona, Steve. | |
| Hello, Steve. | |
| Dennis Prager. | |
| Hey, Dennis, good talking to you again. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Hey, first of all, I'm a golf instructor, and anybody that's been in golf can tell you that a lot of what happens in golf mimics real-life situations. | |
| Right. | |
| And one of the common themes that you run into all the time with, especially with my students, is this theme called paralysis by analysis. | |
| And it's exactly what you're talking about. | |
| They get so many things caught up in their mind that they begin to fear actually doing any one of the 20 things wrong. | |
| So give me an example, because I don't know golf well, but give me an example. | |
| Well, let's say, for example, Sue is standing over the ball and she's about ready to hit. | |
| Well, she's thinking, well, is my alignment correct? | |
| Do I have a correct grip on the club? | |
| Am I standing to the ball far enough? | |
| Am I able to do that? | |
| Oh, I see. | |
| I never hits the ball. | |
| Do I get my legs? | |
| That's true. | |
| That's the old joke of how do you paralyze a centipede? | |
| Tell him to think about his legs. | |
| Yeah, that's right. | |
| That's exactly right. | |
| Thank you so much. | |
| All right, good. | |
| You heard it now. | |
| I guess it's a perfect example. | |
| That's why I'm asking you folks to pose the question to yourself, what's the worst that could happen if I make the wrong choice? | |
| What's the worst that could happen? | |
| Anaheim, California? | |
| Anaheim and Jennifer. | |
| Hi, Jennifer, Dennis Prager. | |
| Hi, Dennis. | |
| I just want to say you're an intellectual hero of mine and my family, and I thank you for bringing this up. | |
| Thank you. | |
| I wanted to discuss the importance of parents letting their children actually practice making decisions and allowing and supporting their consequences. | |
| Right. | |
| And that is something that I was not allowed to do in small or large things growing up, and it has really paralyzed me as an adult. | |
| I didn't think of that. | |
| And I tell you, when I wasn't allowed to decide what to wear in the morning going to school, let alone what school clothes to buy. | |
| And so now when I get up in the morning and I'm overwhelmed by the choices in front of me, oh, I could wear this, but it's not this, or that, but it's not that. | |
| And the rare times I was allowed to make a decision, that decision was often greeted with judgment or scorn. | |
| Oh, just do this, you know. | |
| That's very interesting. | |
| I need to react to that. | |
| We'll be back in a moment. | |
| This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this. | |
| Your beloved dog and a stranger are both drowning. | |
| You can only save one. | |
| Who do you save? | |
| Every time Dennis Prager asks that question, his audience splits three ways. | |
| One-third chooses the dog, one-third chooses the stranger, and one-third aren't sure. | |
| Why? | |
| Because we live in an age where increasingly feelings define right and wrong. | |
| But if morality is based on emotion, then murder, rape, and theft are just opinions. | |
| And if people feel justified, why is rioting or destruction wrong at all? | |
| In his new book, If There Is No God, Dennis Prager explains why civilizations cannot survive without objective morality and why Judeo-Christian values shape the moral foundations of the free world. | |
| If you claim that certain things are good, certain things are evil, independent of how you feel about it, you are, in effect, affirming golf. | |
| If There Is No God by Dennis Prager. | |
| Available now at PragerStore.com. | |
| That's PragerStore.com. | |
| Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. | |
| Hi, everybody. | |
| You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show. | |
| This is the happiness hour, the hour I devote each week at this time to the subject of happiness. | |
| And this week's topic is indecision and how many people are plagued by it. | |
| My theory is that you fear making the wrong decision. | |
| I mean, this is not, I haven't discovered America, as they say, with this revelation. | |
| But if that is correct, then what you need to do is adopt a different philosophy, and that is, so what if you make the wrong decision? | |
| So what? | |
| It is very rare in life that you can't undo a bad decision. | |
| Very, very, very rare. | |
| And it is better to make wrong decisions than to make no decisions. | |
| Is that right, Alan? | |
| That's a big one. | |
| It is better. | |
| There's a pragorism. | |
| We used to make a list of those things. | |
| They were good. | |
| Because they come out, you know, spontaneously and then they die in either the atmosphere, troposphere, ionosphere, or stratosphere. | |
| They don't? | |
| Oh, good. | |
| Anyway, that's the point. | |
| Also, it's a temperament. | |
| It's good. | |
| It's good. | |
| It doesn't mean you make decisions capriciously. | |
| You think it through, obviously, it has to have thought, it has to have a reason, but you make the decision. | |
| What house? | |
| What spouse? | |
| What else? | |
| What else rhymes with that? | |
| What mouse? | |
| People spend a whole five hours at a pet store choosing their mouse. | |
| Okay, now the last lady, poor thing, when she grew up, she was not allowed to make any decisions, and she feels that that has paralyzed her as an adult. | |
| It may well have. | |
| It may well have. | |
| But once you know that, I think half of your solution is there. | |
| You know the origins. | |
| That's why, folks, I am such a big behaviorist. | |
| I believe you choose your behaviors and then you let your psyche come along. | |
| Don't wait to change your psyche before you change your behavior. | |
| First, change your behavior. | |
| Then your psyche will travel behind it. | |
| Okay, let's go. | |
| And let's go to Ruthie in Souterton, Pennsylvania. | |
| Hi, Ruthie. | |
| Hi. | |
| Hi. | |
| Well, here's my question. | |
| You're talking about being afraid of making decisions, but I'm okay with picking a mouse. | |
| You know, it doesn't take me four hours. | |
| But I have two big decisions coming up. | |
| One is buying a house. | |
| Right. | |
| And the other one is a bonus that my boss has offered me. | |
| And I am not afraid of, I guess it's when it's a big decision. | |
| I have more fear of it. | |
| Right, right. | |
| And you said, you know, what's the worst that could happen? | |
| Well, I don't know. | |
| There's like nothing really that bad could happen, but I still don't want to make the wrong decision. | |
| But how do you know what the wrong decision is? | |
| There's no way to know. | |
| Right. | |
| Well, I guess that's the problem. | |
| Well, there is no way to know. | |
| Unless you can have a crystal ball, you can't know what the wrong decision is. | |
| Right, but if they're both good options, how do I pick the best? | |
| Then if they're both good options, you thank God that you have such a great life that you can choose between good and good. | |
| So at worst, you got good and not best. | |
| Okay, well, I'm thankful to have a good and good decision, but I still have to make it. | |
| Okay, so give me an example here. | |
| Maybe I can help you. | |
| Okay. | |
| Well, the smaller one, like I said, is a bonus. | |
| My boss offered me a bonus, and he said, I'll either lease a car for you or I'll give you a cash, like a chunk of cash. | |
| And so I'm not, my car that I have now is perfectly fine. | |
| It's maybe nine years old. | |
| It runs well. | |
| I like it. | |
| I would like to have a bigger one, but I would like to have money too, you know, because I'm looking to buy a house as well. | |
| So I don't know, I don't know what to tell him. | |
| Then there is no right decision here. | |
| There is, there is, you have two wonderful things being, you sound almost like if he had offered you four terrific things, you'd even be in worse shape. | |
| Probably. | |
| Just, that's what I meant. | |
| Thank God or your lucky stars, whichever you believe in, that you have been given this opportunity to have one or the other. | |
| And you analyze how long, and this one is more, I think, a cerebral than even an emotional one. | |
| Right. | |
| Wherein you sit down and you calculate what will I benefit after all the bonus, I have to pay taxes, but I don't know what the taxes are with regard to the car lease. | |
| How long more will my car last? | |
| Right. | |
| What is the amount of joy I will get from a car that I love versus the car that I now have? | |
| And you make your list and then you make your decision and never look back. | |
| Never look back. | |
| That's key. | |
| Oh, oh, you're doomed. | |
| You're doomed if you look back. | |
| Oh, if I had only done this in my life. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Well, I guess partly why I'm also crippled with indecision on this one is because what I decide on that will have an impact on other people and on my bigger, more serious real estate decision. | |
| Like I'm trying to buy a house. | |
| Right. | |
| But it's just me. | |
| I'm 27 and I'm like, if I'm not. | |
| Well, let me just tell you this. | |
| Buy anything now. | |
| You're going to move anyway, Ruthie. | |
| Nobody almost living in America is in the same house they were at 27. | |
| And this is a low market. | |
| Buy now. | |
| And then you will know houses much better once you live in one and you will be able to make a far wiser decision in your next house. | |
| The first-time homebuyer knows nothing. | |
| I can tell you from experience. | |
| You buy a house, you learn about houses, you see what you care about. | |
| You don't know what you'll care about in buying a house now. | |
|
Buy Now, Regret Later
00:06:11
|
|
| You never bought one. | |
| Buy something, get a good deal, and then there are a lot of rules there, but I can't review all of them now and then buy something and never look back. | |
| People look back all the time, and this drives me nuts. | |
| Remember, I did the show, Is It Better? Where I was passionate. | |
| It is better to marry and divorce than never to have been married. | |
| And it's like that. | |
| So that didn't work out in the long run. | |
| And so what do you do? | |
| You look back and you say, oh, I wish I had never. | |
| It would have been better to be single. | |
| The vast majority of people, in fact, don't believe it would have been better to have been single that whole time. | |
| The vast majority of divorced people. | |
| And now, and believe me, a divorce in a marriage is far harder than a divorce from a house or a divorce from a car or a divorce from a job. | |
| Celebrate your life. | |
| Right, I mean it. | |
| Celebrate your life. | |
| Because everybody could rethink everything they have done. | |
| We continue on the happiness hour on the Dennis Prager show. | |
| This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this. | |
| Your beloved dog and a stranger are both drowning. | |
| You can only save one. | |
| Who do you save? | |
| Every time Dennis Prager asks that question, his audience splits three ways. | |
| One-third chooses the dog, one-third chooses the stranger, and one-third aren't sure. | |
| Why? | |
| Because we live in an age where increasingly feelings define right and wrong. | |
| But if morality is based on emotion, then murder, rape, and theft are just opinions. | |
| And if people feel justified, why is rioting or destruction wrong at all? | |
| In his new book, If There Is No God, Dennis Prager explains why civilizations cannot survive without objective morality and why Judeo-Christian values shape the moral foundations of the free world. | |
| If you claim that certain things are good, certain things are evil, independent of how you feel about it, you are, in effect, affirming God. | |
| If There Is No God by Dennis Prager. | |
| Available now at PragerStore.com. | |
| That's PragerStore.com. | |
| Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. | |
| This could go on. | |
| Really, this could go on for days. | |
| I love the calls that I have up here. | |
| Oh, boy. | |
| 1-8 Prager 776. | |
| In fact, I would like Ezra to stay on for the next hour. | |
| It's beyond the happiness issue. | |
| So I hope he's listening. | |
| Ezra in Gig Harbor, Washington. | |
| Stay on. | |
| And now I'm talking to you this hour, the happiness hour. | |
| This is Dennis Prager, and every week at this time, I do have an hour on happiness. | |
| The problem of people paralyzed by inability to make a decision. | |
| I gave the real estate example. | |
| It's endless. | |
| House, spouse, mouse, whatever it might be. | |
| Well, you know, I see both sides. | |
| There are always both sides, folks. | |
| There's always both sides. | |
| Very rare that there aren't two sides. | |
| I see both sides. | |
| Of course you do. | |
| Of course, there's going to be a house that has something the other house doesn't have. | |
| Of course, there's going to be a man or a woman who has something that the other man or a woman doesn't have. | |
| Of course, it's endless. | |
| The way it works. | |
| All righty, let's see here. | |
| And okay, well, Jennifer is still on, but I thought I hope I dealt with that one, Jennifer. | |
| Become behavioral. | |
| Just make the decisions. | |
| Force yourself to, whether you like to or not. | |
| Folks, you don't have to be emotionally comfortable with your decisions. | |
| There's been too much emphasis placed on feelings. | |
| Man came over to me after a speech this week in Toronto said he was offended. | |
| That's the only thing, only thing that drives me nuts when people react to me, because I'm not offensive at all. | |
| What he meant to say was he didn't agree with me. | |
| So because he felt bad with what I said, he was offended. | |
| This is just narcissism. | |
| Feelings are not that important. | |
| They're unbelievably important in making us human, of course. | |
| But not in making our decisions. | |
| Okay, let's see here. | |
| My girlfriend, this is Andrew in Dallas. | |
| My girlfriend couldn't make decisions for the life of her, but my impatience has made her more decisive. | |
| Exactly. | |
| That's what people mean. | |
| You can't become enablers of the unhappy. | |
| It's another topic for you. | |
| Enablers of the unhappy. | |
| That's what a lot of people do. | |
| Give them feedback. | |
| You know, you can't live this way, a dear girlfriend whom I love. | |
| All right, that's another one. | |
| Dave in Colorado Springs. | |
| I have a girlfriend who I intellectually know is bad for me, but I'm so emotionally attached I can't break up with her. | |
| Well, Dave, that's sort of self-answering, I think. | |
| Why don't you take out an ad in the obituary column? | |
| Make believe you died and just leave. | |
| Bobby, I'm sorry I didn't get to you. | |
| And Lee as well. | |
| Make decisions. | |
| This is Dennis. | |
| This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. | |
| Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs and to purchase Dennis Prager's rational Bibles. | |
| Your beloved dog and a stranger are both drowning. | |
| You can only save one. | |
| Who do you save? | |
| Every time Dennis Prager asks that question, his audience splits three ways. | |
| One-third chooses the dog, one-third chooses the stranger, and one-third aren't sure. | |
|
Drowning Dilemma
00:00:42
|
|
| Why? | |
| Because we live in an age where increasingly feelings define right and wrong. | |
| But if morality is based on emotion, then murder, rape, and theft are just opinions. | |
| And if people feel justified, why is rioting or destruction wrong at all? | |
| In his new book, If There Is No God, Dennis Prager explains why civilizations cannot survive without objective morality and why Judeo-Christian values shape the moral foundations of the free world. | |
| If you claim that certain things are good, certain things are evil, independent of how you feel about it, you are, in effect, affirming God. | |
| If There Is No God by Dennis Prager, available now at Pragerstore.com. | |